UNITED NATIONS/PORT-AU-PRINCE –
Haiti’s capital is almost completely isolated by air, sea and land blockades as gang violence intensifies, preventing aid from reaching 58,000 children with the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, the head of the UN agency for children.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said two-thirds of Haiti’s children need help, women and girls are experiencing “extreme levels” of sexual and gender-based violence and between 30 and 50 percent of armed groups have children in their ranks.
“The situation in Haiti is catastrophic and worsening by the day,” Russell told the UN Security Council. “Port-au-Prince is now almost completely isolated due to air, sea and land blockades.”
Haiti is preparing to install a nine-member council that will replace Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who promised to resign on March 11 while stranded outside the country and under pressure from the United States.
Haitian gangs, many of whom have banded together under an alliance known as “Viv Ansanm” (Living Together), have said their victory in the capital was a battle to overthrow Henry, but since his announcement there has been little respite in The attacks. .
Viv Ansanm gangs clashed with police around the National Palace on Monday, local media reported. The transitional council is scheduled to be installed in the palace, although the date has not yet been confirmed.
“Since March 8, nearly 100,000 Haitians have left Port-au-Prince for the regions, escaping gang violence in search of safety,” UN special envoy for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador told the Security Council. “Food insecurity also remains rampant across the country, with half the population suffering from severe food insecurity,” he said, adding that a UN appeal for $674 million by 2024 was only 8 percent funded. .
‘Running out of fuel’
Operations at Haiti’s main fuel import terminal were suspended Monday when armed men confiscated trucks and demanded the port close, according to a source briefed on the matter.
Armed gangs blocked the Varreux terminal for almost a month in October 2021, and again a year later for more than a month, halting most economic activities and prompting the government to call for foreign intervention.
“They are running out of fuel,” World Food Program deputy executive director Carl Skau, who visited Haiti over the weekend, told Reuters earlier on Monday. “There’s a ship coming. If it can dock and unload then they’ll be safe, but we’re talking days until they’re gone.”
As most businesses could not maintain power without their diesel generators, during previous lockdowns hospitals were forced to close, radio stations stopped programming, mobile antennas ran out of fuel, and transportation came to a standstill.
The Security Council authorized a foreign security mission to Haiti in October 2023. But the mission, which Kenya has offered to lead, has not yet been deployed amid legal and funding problems.
Russell said that since the security mission will likely be deployed in dense urban environments, “the safety of the civilian population is paramount.”
“The use of force in and around populated areas should be avoided, and the mission should only use the least harmful means that are necessary and proportionate to the legitimate objective of law enforcement,” he said.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Ralph Tedy Erol in Port-au-Prince; Additional reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City and Simon Lewis in Washington; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)